Vietnam will host the Asian Games for the first time in 2019 when the nation's capital of Hanoi was on Thursday elected to stage the 18th edition of the continent's showcase sports event. Hanoi beat Indonesia's Surabaya in the bidding race which reached its conclusion with a vote at the 31st General Assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia in Macau.
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was the third country in the running for the games but withdrew just hours before the vote, saying it intended to concentrate on bidding for future editions. Announcing the results, OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, said voting was "very tight", without revealing the details. Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city after Jakarta, was awarded the consolation prize of the 4th Asian Youth Games in 2021. Hanoi emerged as the favourite after the Vietnamese government pledged to spend million of dollars on infrastructure development which would "transform Hanoi into a modern city". Vietnam has never hosted the Asian Games before but staged the 3rd Asian Indoor Games in 2009.
Indonesia previously staged the Asian Games in its capital Jakarta in 1962. India was absent from the OCA gathering, leaving 44 of the 45 National Olympic Committees to vote, with 23 being the number of votes required to win. The winning bid announcement was the highlight of the OCA's 31st General Assembly in the Chinese enclave of Macau, known as the Vegas of the East. The Asian Games are held every four years but will switch to a five-year gap for one edition after the 17th edition in Incheon, South Korea, in 2014, to establish a new four-year cycle.